The subject of the invention is a device for the preservation and reheating of tray meals with modular heat regions and cold regions.
It relates in general to thermally insulated mobile containers consisting of a lower box and an upper box which are separated by a space which can contain several stacked tray meals, and having, passing through the tray meals, two independent circuits, a cooling circuit and a reheating or cooling/reheating circuit, these containers being equipped with refrigeration means communicating with at least one of the two circuits, each tray meal having thermal barriers dividing it into a cold region and a region to be reheated, which are insulated from each other and from the outside, these regions being penetrated by vertical channels ensuring the flow of the hot or cold air.
At the present time, there are a large number of systems intended for tray meals to be stored, transported and reheated.
For example, French patent 2 662 592 discloses a device for distributing tray meals with integrated standby refrigeration effects and reheating effects. It is composed of a compact isothermal module formed by the stacking and superposition of tray meals and of their lids, the whole assembly being positioned in a support cabinet which includes the compressor/heat generator and the ventilation system which allows the refrigerated air to be blown through ducts over the refrigerated region and the standby region which is formed by the superposition of the trays. These two regions are insulated from each other by a deformation of the lid, an electrical resistance element located in each lid allowing the meals to be reheated.
When the support cabinet is moved, in order to distribute the tray meals, the electrical supply for the compressor must be interrupted, thereby excluding any application of this type of cabinet to the distribution these meals from a remote food provision unit since, very rapidly, the evaporator is no longer capable of providing refrigeration.
Another French patent 2 759 890 claims a device for the preservation of tray meals with localized reheating. In this device, the refrigeration means comprise, on the one hand, a cold accumulator, the bottom of which has an approximately semicylindrical deformation, and, on the other hand, against the aforementioned deformation, a regulating member consisting of a horizontal pivoting cylinder, comprising an upper insulating part and a lower conducting part, fitted into which lower conducting part are heat pipe bars projecting into the loop of the cooling circuit and, in one of the elements of each tray, an exchange plate comprising a first heat pipe network, the heat exchangers of which are placed in those regions of the containers to be cooled, this network being provided with heat extraction fittings placed in the descending vertical branch of the cooling circuit.
To our knowledge, no known system can modify on demand the relative size of the hot and cold regions of the tray meals.
The objective of the device according to the present invention is to remedy this situation. This is because it makes it possible for the places intended for the dishes to be consumed cold and the dishes to be consumed hot, respectively, to be adapted according to requirements.
It consists of a chamber for preserving and for reheating tray meals, this chamber being divided into two regions separated by a vertical movable heat barrier which allows said regions to be at different temperatures and to have volumes that can be varied according to requirements, the tray meals having, on two opposed edges, a series of notches housing a removable insulating partition separating the dishes that have to be served hot from the dishes that have to be served cold and the position of said insulating partition may be modified in order to make it correspond with that of the thermal barrier of the chamber.